GOD PARTICLE is such a flick for Paramount Insurge, which Abrams has just tapped feature first timer Julius Onah to helm under a modest $5-10 million budget. No production schedule has been set, but Abrams will produce through his Bad Robot banner.

Scripted by Oren Uziel:

GOD PARTICLE centers on a team of American astronauts aboard a space station who are left stranded when the Earth vanishes into thin air, after a mishap with a Hadron particle accelerator. While they try to determine a course of action, they discover a European spacecraft on their radar.

Earth vanishes into thin air? Whoa. Solid setup I suppose, but first time directors are always tricky. That said, Abrams has been successful in fostering new talent, be it Matt Reeves or whomever. More interesting to me is the budget. If good sci-fi thrillers can be brought in at a low cost, devoid of gaudy eye-candy and bloated CG sequences, we might actually have a mini-genre resurgence. I'm all for that!

What says you?

Extra Tidbit:

Julius Onah is known for his shorts BIG MAN and THE GIRL IS IN TROUBLE.